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MASTERS  IN  ART 

A  SERIES  OF  ILLUSTRATED 
MONOGRAPHS:    ISSUED  MONTHLY 


PART  21 


SEPTEMBER,  1901 


VOLUME  2 


3tuca  anil  3lntirea 


CONTENTS 


Plate  I.        Singing  Gallery  of  the  Cathedral  Museum  of  the  Cathedral:  Florence 

Plate  II,      Singing  Gallery  of  the  Cathedral  [end  panels] 

Museum  of  the  Cathedral:  Florence 
Plate  III,     Tomb  of  Bishop  Benozzo  Federighi  Church  of  Santa  Trinita:  Florence 

Plate  IV.      Madonna  and  Child  with  Angels  Via  dell'  Agnolo:  Florence 

Plate  V,       The  Visitation  Church  of  San  Giovanni  fuorcivitas:  Pistoja 

Plate  VI,      Bambini  Hospital  of  the  Innocenti:  Florence 

Plate  VII,     Meeting  of  St,  Francis  and  St,  Dominic  Loggia  di  San  Paolo:  Florence 

Plate  VIII.  The  Annunciation  Hospital  of  the  Innocenti:  Florence 

Plate  IX.     Coronation  of  the  Virgin  Church  of  the  Osservanza:  near  Siena 

Plate  X,       Madonna  and  Child  with  Saints  Cathedral  of  Prato 

Portraits  of  Luca  and  Andrea  della  Robbia  Page  20 

The  Lives  of  Luca  and  Andrea  della  Robbia  Page  21 

Church  (Quarterly  Review,  Volume  21  (1885) 
The  Art  of  Luca  and  Andrea  della  Robbia  Page  25 

Criticisms  by  Marquand,  Cavalucci  and  Molinier,  E,  H.  and  E,  W. 

Blashfield  and  a.  a.  Hopkins,  Editors,  Oliphant,  Reymond,  Pater 

The  Works  of  Luca  and  Andrea  della  Robbia  :  Descriptions  of  Plates  and  List  of  Works 

Page  34 

Della  Robbia  Bibliography  Page  39 

Photo-  Engravings  hy  Folsorn  and  Sunergren:  Boston.     Press-work  hy  the  Everett  Press:  Boston. 

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MASTERS  IN  AHT    PLATE  III 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  ALINARI 


LUCA  DELLA  KOBBIA 
TOMB  OF  BISnOP  BENOZZO  FEDEEIGHI 
CHURCH  OF  SANTA  TRINITA,  FLORENCE 


MASTEKS  IN  AET    PLATE  V 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  ALINARI 


LUCA  DEi,LA  liOBBIA  (?) 
THE  VISITATION 
CHURCH  OF  SAN  GIOVANNI  FUOECIVITAS,  PISTOJA 


I 


MASTEKS  IN  AUT    PLATE  IX 

PHOTOGRAPH  BY  ALINARI 


AXDHEA  BELLA  ROBBIA 
COROXATIOX  OF  THE  VIRGIN 
CHURCH  OF  THE  OSSERVANZA,  NEAR  SIENA 


POKTHAITS  OF  I.tJCA  AND  ANDHEA  DELXiA  EOBBIA 

No  unquestionably  authentic  likeness  of  Luca  della  Robbia  exists.  The  sketch  of 
him  here  shown  is  from  the  engraving  given  by  Vasari  in  the  original  edition  of 
his  "Lives,"  and  as  Vasari  had  seen  and  describes  a  now  lost  portrait  of  Luca, 
painted  by  Luca  himself,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  engraving  was  based  upon  this 
portrait,  especially  as  the  drapery  corresponds  with  Vasari's  description. 

In  one  of  the  series  of  frescos  in  the  Annunziata  in  Florence,  Andrea  del  Sarto  is 
said  to  have  depicted  Andrea  della  Robbia  as  a  subordinate  figure,  representing  him 
as  an  infirm  old  man.  It  is  from  Del  Sarto' s  fresco  that  our  portrait  of  Andrea 
della  Robbia  has  been  sketched. 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


Cuca  ani  Snirrea  Mia  IJottia 

BORN  1400:  DIED  1482 
BORN  1435:    DIED  1525 

CHURCH   QUARTERLY   REVIEW  VOLUME  21  (1  885) 

BORN  in  1400,  Luca  della  Robbia  was  the  son  of  Simone  di  Marco 
della  Robbia,  a  shoemaker,  who  lived  in  the  Via  Sant'  Egidio  at  Florence. 
Here  the  boy  grew  up,  and,  after  receiving  a  thorough  education  in  all  that 
was  held  necessary  for  a  youth  of  his  class,  was  apprenticed,  according  to 
Vasari,  to  the  aged  Leonardo  di  Ser  Giovanni,  then  the  best  goldsmith  in 
the  city.  But  higher  ambitions  stirred  his  young  heart,  and,  fired  by  the 
example  of  Lorenzo  Ghiberti,  who  probably  gave  him  his  earliest  train- 
ing in  art,  he  soon  left  the  goldsmith's  shop  to  work  in  bronze  and  marble. 
Such  was  the  ardor  with  which  young  Luca  devoted  himself  to  his  profession 
that  Vasari  assures  us  he  forgot  to  eat  or  sleep,  and  spent  the  day  in  drawing 
and  the  night  in  modelling,  careless  of  cold  and  hunger. 

We  know  nothing  of  his  earliest  works,  but  by  the  time  he  was  thirty  his 
talents  had  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Medici.  On  their  recommendation 
he  was  employed  by  the  administrators  of  the  Cathedral  works  to  execute  ten 
bas-reliefs  for  the  decoration  of  one  of  the  organ  galleries  under  that  fair 
cupola  which  Brunelleschi  had  just  raised  to  be  the  wonder  of  all  Florence. 
The  commission  for  this  work,  a  worthy  task  for  any  Florentine  master,  was 
given  to  Luca  in  143  1;  and  two  years  later  the  decoration  of  the  other  organ 
gallery  on  the  opposite  side  was  assigned  to  Donatello,  then  at  the  height  of 
his  fame.  During  the  next  eight  or  nine  years  Luca  worked  at  these  bas- 
reliefs,  and  we  may  infer  that  his  employers  were  satisfied  with  the  result 
from  the  fact  that  the  price  of  sixty  florins,  originally  agreed  upon  for  the 
larger  bas-reliefs,  was  raised  to  seventy  in  consideration  of  the  time  and 
labor  expended  on  them.  .  .  . 

Before  these  immortal  works  had  left  Luca's  studio,  fresh  commissions 
came  in  from  all  sides.  Once  more  he  and  Donatello  were  required  to  com- 
pete for  the  execution  of  a  colossal  head  to  be  placed  on  the  top  of  Brunel- 
leschi's  cupola;  and  when  this  project  was  abandoned  for  lack  of  funds  a 
joint  commission  was  given  them  to  carve  two  altars  for  the  chapels  of  St. 
Peter  and  St.  Paul  in  the  Duomo.  Again,  however,  the  money  was  not  forth- 
coming; and  Donatello  never  even  attempted  his  share  of  the  task,  while 
Luca  only  carved  two  unfinished  bas-reliefs,  representing  the  deliverance 


22  0ia^ttt^  in  ^tt 

from  prison  of  St.  Peter  and  his  crucifixion,  fine  fragments  bearing  strong 
marks  of  Ghiberti's  influence,  which  are  now  preserved  in  the  National 
Museum,  Florence. 

It  is  pleasant  to  learn  that  Luca,  who  was  so  often  brought  into  compe- 
tition with  Donatello,  had  the  greatest  admiration  for  his  illustrious  rival,  and 
inspired  his  own  nephew,  Andrea,  with  the  same  veneration.  When  Andrea 
himself  was  old,  and  long  after  Luca's  death,  he  often  spoke  with  enthusiasm 
of  the  master,  and  told  young  Giorgio  Vasari  with  pride  that  he  had  been 
present  at  the  great  Donatello's  funeral. 

In  May,  1437,  Luca  was  entrusted  with  a  still  more  honorable  task, — the 
execution  of  the  five  lozenge-shaped  bas-reliefs  which  were  still  wanting  to 
complete  the  series  representing  the  progress  of  civilization  on  the  base  of 
Giotto's  Tower.  All  five  were  copied  from  Giotto's  own  designs,  and,  but 
for  the  sharpness  and  clearness  of  the  work  and  the  loving  care  with  which 
every  leaf  of  the  foliage  is  carved,  have  little  in  common  with  Luca's  finer 
style.  But  the  longest  and  most  laborious  task  on  which  Luca  was  employed 
in  Santa  Maria  del  Fiore  was  the  execution  of  the  bronze  doors  of  the  sac- 
risty under  the  organ  gallery.  These  had  been  originally  assigned  to  Dona- 
tello in  1437,  and  it  was  not  until  1446  that  the  administrators  of  the  Cathe- 
dral works,  tired  of  awaiting  that  master's  pleasure,  gave  the  commission 
to  Michelozzo,  Maso  di  Bartolommeo,  and  Luca  della  Robbia.  Maso  died, 
and  Michelozzo  being  absent,  Luca  completed  the  doors  alone  in  1464. 

Before  he  had  even  begun  to  work  at  these  gates,  however,  he  had  already 
entered  on  the  second  period  of  his  career,  and  had,  in  Vasari's  words,  en- 
riched the  world  by  another  art,  ^^nuova,  utile,  et  hellissimaJ^  His  fertile  genius, 
ever  seeking  for  new  means  of  expression,  could  not  rest  content  with  the 
slow  production  of  works  in  bronze  and  marble.  Some  easier,  less  costly 
material  was  needed  for  the  more  prompt  and  spontaneous  expression  of 
those  countless  forms  of  beauty  which  thronged  upon  his  vision,  and  it  is 
Luca's  glory  to  have  discovered  an  art  exactly  suited  to  his  wants.  It  has 
been  sometimes  supposed  that,  as  Vasari  intimates,  Luca  della  Robbia  was 
the  first  to  apply  a  glaze  of  enamel  to  pottery;  but  this  is  a  mistake,  for  ma- 
jolica was  manufactured  in  Italy  long  before  his  time.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  seems  little  doubt  that  he  was  the  first  to  apply  this  stanniferous  en- 
amel to  works  of  sculpture  in  terra-cotta,  and  thus  give  the  clay  he  moulded 
the  charms  of  transparency  and  brightness,  while  at  the  same  time  he  ren- 
dered it  durable  enough  to  resist  many  centuries  of  exposure  to  the  air. 

How  long  he  labored  and  how  many  times  he  failed  in  his  experiments 
we  do  not  learn,  but  by  1443  his  success  was  complete,  for  in  that  year  he 
was  commanded  to  make  a  relief  of  the  'Resurrection'  in  glazed  terra-cotta 
for  the  lunette  above  the  sacristy  door  in  the  Duomo.  There  the  work  is 
still  to  be  seen  to-day.  The  figures  are  white  on  a  blue  ground,  and  little 
other  color  is  introduced;  but  in  the  relief  of  the  'Ascension,'  executed  by 
Luca  three  years  afterwards,  and  which  occupies  the  space  above  the  other 
sacristy  door,  green  and  brown  and  yellow  are  all  employed  to  throw  out  the 
principal  figures  and  avoid  confusion.    In  the  contract  for  this  relief  the 


23 


colors  to  be  used  are  specified,  and  it  is  expressly  said,  ^^Mons  sit  sui  coloris, 
arbores  etiam  sui  coloris,'' — a  fact  which  sufficiently  refutes  the  idea  that 
Luca  confined  himself  solely  to  blue  and  white,  although  it  is  true  that  as  a 
rule  his  figures  are  white,  and  that  he  employed  other  colors  only  for  the 
subordinate  parts  of  the  picture,  while  the  tones  he  used  are  more  delicate 
than  those  of  his  later  followers. 

Every  day  the  new  art  became  more  popular  with  the  Florentines,  and 
Luca  was  called  upon  to  adorn  one  building  after  another.  His  reliefs  were 
not  exclusively  employed  to  ornament  churches,  and  several  Florentine  pal- 
aces were  decorated  with  shields  and  medallions  by  his  hand.  His  masterpiece 
in  this  kind  was  Piero  de'  Medici's  study,  a  small  room  which  he  decorated 
entirely,  from  the  ceiling  to  the  floor,  with  reliefs  and  enamelled  tiles,  "a 
rare  thing,"  says  Vasari,  "and  very  useful  for  the  summer-time." 

Occasionally  we  find  Luca  still  working  in  marble  as  well  as  in  terra- 
cotta, and  both  are  happily  blended  in  the  tabernacle  now  in  a  church  at  the 
village  of  Peretola,  which  bears  a  marble  relief  of  a  Pieta  surrounded  by  a 
terra-cotta  frieze,  and  also  in  the  tomb  of  Benozzo  Federighi,  Bishop  of 
Fiesole,  which  stands  at  present  in  the  Church  of  Santa  Trinita,  Florence. 

Luca's  powers  and  industry  showed  no  falling  off  as  he  advanced  in  years, 
and  the  vaulting  of  the  Chapel  of  San  Jacopo  at  San  Miniato,  executed  when 
he  was  past  sixty,  is  the  finest  and  most  complete  scheme  of  roof  decoration 
which  he  ever  accomplished.  This  work  was  not  completed  until  1466,  and 
is  the  last  one  of  Luca's  of  which  any  record  remains.  Five  years  afterwards 
he  was  elected  head  of  the  Artists'  Guild,  but  declined  to  accept  the  honor 
— the  greatest  to  which  a  Florentine  master  could  aspire — on  the  score  of 
his  great  age  and  increasing  infirmities. 

In  1446,  at  about  the  time  that  his  glazed  terra-cotta  work  first  became 
famous,  he  had  bought  a  house  in  the  Via  Guelfa,  where  he  spent  the  re- 
mainder of  his  life  with  his  two  orphaned  nephews,  Andrea  and  Simone,  the 
sons  of  his  only  brother,  Marco.  He  had  never  married,  and  adopted  them 
as  his  own  children ;  and  while  Simone  followed  his  father's  and  grandfather's 
trade  of  shoemaking,  Andrea  had  been  trained  by  his  uncle  to  his  own  art,  and 
was  already  a  distinguished  sculptor.  To  him  Luca  left,  as  his  most  precious 
possession,  the  practice  of  the  art  which  he  had  invented,  while  to  Simone  he 
bequeathed  the  whole  of  his  modest  fortune.  His  reasons  for  this  division  are 
fully  explained  in  the  quaintly  worded  will  which  he  made  on  February  19, 
147  1.  Since  he  had  in  his  lifetime  taught  Andrea  his  art,  while  he  had  never 
taught  Simone  anything,  since  the  practice  of  the  said  art  which  Andrea  inher- 
ited from  Luca  was  sufficiently  remunerative  to  support  his  family  honor- 
ably, and  as  all  the  goods  Luca  had  were  not  equal  to  this  art  which  Andrea 
had  received  as  a  gift  from  Luca,  and  since  it  was  well  that  Simone  should 
have  his  share,  and  that  no  one  should  be  able  to  reproach  him,  Luca, 
with  injustice,  he  now  left  all  his  remaining  fortune  to  the  said  Simone,  his 
nephew. 

After  making  his  will  Luca  lived  eleven  years  more  in  the  same  house  with 
his  nephews,  who  were  both  married  and  had  children  of  their  own.  At 


24 


;^a^ttt  ^  in  art 


length,  on  February  20,  1482,  he  died,  and  was  buried  in  his  own  sepulchre 
in  the  Church  of  San  Pietro  Maggiore,  leaving  a  long  roll  of  great  works  and 
the  memory  of  a  noble  life  to  be  the  glory  of  his  native  Florence. 

The  pains  which  he  had  spent  on  his  nephew  Andrea's  training  had  already 
met  with  their  reward;  and  when  Luca  closed  his  eyes  on  this  world  he  had 
the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  left  a  successor  well  fitted  to  continue 
his  work  and  perpetuate  the  name  which  he  had  made  illustrious. 

Born  in  1435,  Andrea  della  Robbia  had  married  when  he  was  about  thirty, 
and  in  147  0,  according  to  the  tax-papers  of  that  year,  he  had  already  three 
children  by  his  wife,  Nanna,  aged  twenty-one.  He  led  the  same  simple,  hard- 
working life  as  his  uncle  before  him,  never  leaving  the  old  house,  where  he 
reared  seven  sons  to  be  his  helpers.  During  the  ninety  years  of  his  long  life 
the  new  art  enjoyed  an  ever-increasing  popularity,  and  attained  a  fuller  de- 
velopment than  ever  before.  It  was  now  applied  with  great  success  to  a 
number  of  different  objects.  Altars  of  every  size  and  description,  friezes, 
statues,  and  shields,  issued  in  countless  numbers  from  the  workshop  in  the 
Via  Guelfa.  While  Luca's  activity  had  been  almost  entirely  confined  to 
Florence,  Andrea's  works  are  to  be  found  not  only  in  every  part  of  Tuscany, 
but  among  all  the  cities  and  convents  of  Umbria  and  Romagna. 

After  his  uncle's  death  he  was  employed  on  works  for  the  Cathedral,  which 
have  for  the  most  part  perished.  In  1489  he  finished  a  beautiful  lunette  for 
the  Duomo  of  Prato.  Two  years  later  he  completed  a  frieze  of  garlands  and 
medallions  for  Santa  Maria  delle  Carceri  in  the  same  town.  He  was  back 
at  Florence  soon  afterwards,  working  at  the  Hospital  di  San  Paolo,  and  both 
he  and  his  sons  were  witnesses  of  that  great  religious  revival  by  which  Savo- 
narola made  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  memorable. 

The  whole  of  Andrea's  family,  we  learn  from  Vasari,  were  deeply  attached 
to  the  friar  of  San  Marco,  and,  like  so  many  of  the  best  Florentine  artists, 
devoted  their  art  to  his  cause.  More  than  this,  two  of  Andrea's  sons — 
Marco,  the  eldest,  and  Paolo — took  the  vows,  and  received  the  Dominican 
habit  at  the  hands  of  Savonarola  himself.  On  that  terrible  night  when  the 
faithful  Piagnoni  rallied  in  the  Convent  of  San  Marco,  three  of  Andrea's 
sons  were  among  its  defenders,  and  the  best  account  we  have  of  those  last  sad 
scenes  was  given  by  Fra  Luca,  otherwise  known  as  Marco  della  Robbia,  in 
his  examination  before  Savonarola's  judges.  He  it  is  who  describes  how,  as 
night  closed  on  that  anxious  day,  the  little  band  of  armed  monks  met  in  the 
church,  and  how  the  frate^  standing  calm  and  unmoved  in  their  midst  with 
the  sacrament  in  his  hands,  bade  them  lay  down  their  arms;  how,  too,  some 
of  them  disobeyed  his  word,  and  he  among  the  rest  struck  wildly  with  his 
sword  at  the  furious  mob  who  rushed  in  to  seize  their  victim.  We  know 
that  it  was  all  in  vain,  that  Fra  Luca  and  his  brave  friends  were  overpowered, 
and  that  Savonarola  died.  But  the  Della  Robbias  were  among  the  faithful 
Piagnoni  who  revered  his  memory  to  the  last ;  and  we  learn  from  Vasari 
that  they  commemorated  his  name  in  medals,  bearing  Savonarola's  head  on 
one  side,  and  on  the  other  a  fortified  city  with  the  sword  of  the  Lord  de- 
scending upon  her,  as  he  had  prophesied. 


2DeIla  iSo66ia 


25 


In  his  last  years  the  aged  Andrea  executed  several  works  for  the  Domin- 
icans, to  whom  he  was  bound  by  so  many  ties.  He  adorned  an  altar  in  the 
Church  of  San  Marco  itseU.  For  the  monks  of  La  Quercia  at  Viterbo  he 
accomplished  several  important  works  between  1498  and  1514;  and  a  Ma- 
donna, his  last  work  of  all,  was  destined  for  Plan  di  Mugnone,  a  house  in 
the  country,  belonging  to  the  monks  of  San  Marco.  This  was  finished  in 
1515,  when  Andrea  was  already  eighty  years  old. 

Ten  years  after  he  died,  on  the  fourth  of  August,  1525,  and  was  buried 
by  the  side  of  his  uncle  and  master,  the  great  Luca,  in  the  Church  of  San 
Pietro  Maggiore. 


C|)e  M  of  iLuca  auti  9[nUrea  liella  IMUu 

ALLAN   MARQUAND  SCRIBNER'S    MAGAZINE:  1893 

THE  monuments  of  the  Robbia  school  are  well  distributed  throughout 
Tuscany;  they  are  found  also  in  the  Marches  and  in  Umbria,  and  as 
far  south  as  Rome  and  Naples.  Many  of  them  have  travelled  to  the  mu- 
seums and  private  collections  of  northern  Europe,  and  a  few  have  reached 
the  United  States. 

These  sculptured  monuments  are  made  of  terra-cotta,  and  covered  with 
an  opaque  stanniferous  glaze,  in  which  the  colors  are  mixed  as  in  enamel. 
The  figured  reliefs  are  sometimes  white  against  a  blue  background,  but  often 
exhibit  a  variety  of  colors.  The  popular  impression  —  for  which  Vasari  is 
responsible — that  the  art  of  making  these  glazes  was  discovered  by  Luca 
della  Robbia,  that  it  was  preserved  as  a  secret,  and  perished  with  his  school, 
has  proved  to  be  unfounded.  Opaque  glazes  were  applied  to  sculpture  dur- 
ing the  Gothic  period  in  Spain,  and  found  their  way  to  Italy  long  before 
Luca  della  Robbia  was  born.  They  disappear  in  the  late  Renaissance,  partly 
because  paint  and  varnish  produced  brilliant  effects  on  terra-cotta  with  less 
labor,  and  partly  because  stucco  and  paintings  on  canvas  were  cheaper  than 
sculptures  in  marble  and  terra-cotta.  The  spirit  of  the  age  also  demanded 
brilliant  reds  and  naturalistic  flesh-colors,  and  these  were  impossible  in  opaque 
glazes. 

CAVALUCCI   AND    MOLINIER  «LES   DELLA  ROBBIA' 

ALTHOUGH  he  stands  in  a  somewhat  different  category,  Luca  della 
^  Robbia  deserves  to  rank  with  the  three  greatest  sculptors  of  the  first 
half  of  the  fifteenth  century,  —  Ghiberti,  Donatello,  and  Della  Quercia. 
Lacking  their  originality  and  their  higher  gifts  of  conception,  he  yet  achieved 
in  his  own  day  a  reputation  equal  to  theirs,  and  this  reputation  posterity  has 
confirmed.  The  founder  and  chief  of  a  family  of  artists  who  continued  his 
work  to  the  end  of  the  century,  he,  still  remaining  a  realist,  yet  contrived 
to  imbue  his  works  with  so  profound  a  sentiment,  so  much  grace,  and  so 


26 


f^a^ttt^   in  ^rt 


much  naivete,  that  few  Renaissance  artists  so  closely  approach  the  classic  in 
style. 

Many  writers  have  paid  Luca  della  Robbia  their  tributes  of  praise,  but  to 
our  thinking  none  has  given  a  truer  summary  of  his  qualities  in  fewer  words 
than  the  Marquis  de  Laborde,  in  his  monograph  upon  the  *  Chateau  du  Bois 
de  Boulogne.'   He  writes:  — 

"Luca  was  a  sculptor  of  the  first  rank.  He  set  himself  to  seek  beauty 
through  the  earnest  study  of  classic  models,  through  persevering  imitation  of 
nature,  through  purity  of  form,  through  truth  of  expression,  and  through 
graceful  variation  of  pose;  and  he  was  so  far  successful  that  even  in  the  face 
of  Ghiberti's  overpowering  glory,  and  even  in  rivalry  with  Donatello,  he 
was  able  to  make  his  name  equal  to  theirs  in  Florence  itself.  Such  were 
his  talents  that  he  might  have  attained  eminence  had  he  done  no  more  than 
join  his  contemporaries  in  that  broad  fifteenth-century  highroad  of  art  which 
had  been  opened  for  them  by  Niccola  Pisano.  But  he  did  more;  impa- 
tient of  the  slow  processes  of  sculpture  in  marble,  and  perhaps  weary  of  the 
monotony  of  its  whiteness,  he  sought  for  a  new  path,  or  strayed  into  a  long- 
abandoned  one,  and  struck  out  for  himself.  Whatever  may  have  led  him 
into  the  byway,  whether  he  had  seen  the  colored  terra-cottas  of  the  ancients, 
whether  he  had  in  mind  the  painted  sculptures  of  the  middle  ages,  or  whether 
his  own  initiative  led  him  to  attempt  to  fuse  the  sister  arts  of  sculpture  and 
painting,  there  is  no  more  interesting  figure  than  that  of  this  man,  who  re- 
discovered and  taught  to  his  family  an  art  which  for  two  centuries  was  to 
be  monopolized  by  those  who  bore  the  name  of  Della  Robbia." 

To  affirm,  as  some  critics  have  done,  that  Luca  della  Robbia  was  entirely 
under  the  influence  of  Ghiberti's  mysticism,  and  only  rarely  felt  the  natural- 
istic impress  of  that  school  of  which  Donatello  was  the  great  representative, 
is  an  over-statement.  M.  Rio,  who  has  shown  himself  the  warmest  partisan 
of  mysticism  in  the  art  of  the  Italian  Renaissance,  claims  for  Luca  the 
honor  of  having  revolted  against  naturalism.  "The  credit  of  having  kept 
sculpture  in  a  path  so  opposed  to  contemporary  prejudices,"  he  writes, 
"must  be  shared  by  three  men,  all  advanced  in  age  when  Donatello  died, 
but  who  outlived  him  long  enough  to  change  the  course  into  which  he  had 
directed  contemporary  art.  These  men  were  Luca  della  Robbia,  Desiderio 
da  Settignano,  and  Mino  da  Fiesole."  This  statement  may  be  true  to  some 
extent,  but  it  is  surely  misleading  to  add,  as  Rio  does,  that  because  of  the  influ- 
ence of  these  men  the  study  of  the  antique  marbles  in  the  Medici  gardens  "came 
to  occupy  only  a  secondary  place  in  the  education  of  the  best-known  Flor- 
entine artists."  The  bas-reliefs  of  the  'Singing  Gallery'  are  alone  quite  suffi- 
cient to  demolish,  in  regard  to  Luca  at  least,  any  such  theory.  Indeed,  it  is 
impossible  to  misunderstand  the  influence  which  classic  art  must  have  had 
upon  his  genius  when  we  look  at  this  work.  Luca's  naturalism  is  more 
temperate  than  the  naturalism  of  Donatello,  but  it  is  quite  sufficiently 
marked,  and  especially  in  this,  his  greatest  work,  to  falsify  any  such  sweep- 
ing statement.  The  truth  is  that  Luca  cannot  be  ranked  as  either  wholly 
naturalistic  or  wholly  mystic  in  his  art.  The  two  influences  swayed  him 
conjointly,  and  neither  ever  completely  outweighed  the  other.   In  a  word, 


SDella  iiofifiia 


27 


the  education  which  Ghiberti  may  himself  have  given  Luca  della  Robbia 
never  effaced  Luca's  profound  admiration  for  Donatello.  .  .  . 

If  we  were  obliged  to  briefly  summarize  the  preeminent  qualities  of 
Luca's  art,  we  should  be  tempted  to  call  them  simplicity  and  nobility.  Sym- 
metry is  also  one  of  his  prime  characteristics — a  symmetry  so  perfect  that 
it  sometimes  recalls  the  sculpture  of  a  previous  age,  yet  without  its  mon- 
otony. To  fully  recognize  these  qualities,  we  should  not  confine  our  studies 
to  his  works  in  terra-cotta  alone.  The  latter  unquestionably  brought  him 
his  wide  renown,  but  on  the  other  hand,  they  have  done  no  little  wrong  to 
his  true  genius.  Luca's  name  has  been  so  often  connected  with  works  in  terra- 
cotta which  were  produced  in  the  decadence  of  that  style  during  later  years 
that  amateurs  in  general  have  come  to  regard  him,  while  no  doubt  an  artist  of 
the  greatest  talent,  yet  as  one  whose  distinguishing  characteristics  are  amia- 
bility and  grace.  But  Luca  had  higher  and  stronger  qualities.  Indeed,  we 
must  repeat  that  it  is  not  in  his  works  in  Della  Robbia  ware  at  all,  but  in 
the  bas-reliefs  executed  for  the  'Singing  Gallery'  of  the  Cathedral — executed 
when  he  was  still  young  in  years  but  already  mature  in  talent — that  we 
must  turn  if  we  would  see  him  at  his  very  best.  If  he  was  unquestionably 
and  above  all  a  Quattrocentist,  if  he  knew  how  to  be  most  supple  in  his 
workmanship,  yet  he  could  also  give  his  personages  attitudes  so  full  of  calm 
and  dignity,  and  expressions  so  noble,  that  we  may,  without  partisanship, 
rank  him  among  the  greatest  sculptors  of  his  day.  .  .  . 

Luca's  death  did  not  check  the  production  of  the  Della  Robbia  reliefs. 
Indeed,  a  great  number  of  enamelled  terra-cottas  were  produced  by  Andrea, 
his  nephew  and  successor,  before  Luca's  death.  But  although  taught  and 
educated  by  Luca  himself,  Andrea  stamped  his  own  productions  with  an 
individuality  which  makes  them  in  general  easy  to  distinguish  from  those 
of  his  uncle.  Master  to  the  full  of  Luca's  finest  qualities  of  suppleness 
and  grace,  and,  indeed,  often  surpassing  him  in  these  respects,  Andrea, 
on  the  other  hand,  cannot  be  defended  from  the  charge  of  over-delicacy, 
and  never  succeeded  in  imparting  to  his  figures  that  strength  and  nobility 
by  which  Luca  atoned  for  frequent  over-minuteness  in  the  treatment  of  de- 
tails. Lovely  as  they  are, — and  they  are  invariably  lovely, — Andrea's  Vir- 
gins (and,  like  many  Renaissance  sculptors,  Andrea  wrought  the  effigy  of 
the  Virgin  oftener  than  any  other  subject)  are  far  less  living  than  those  of 
the  elder  sculptor;  and  if  they  evince  a  genuine  striving  after  the  ideal, 
their  expressions  are,  on  the  other  hand,  sometimes  a  trifle  affected,  and  the 
modelling  is  somewhat  too  soft  and  round. 

But  though  Andrea  was  incontestably  inferior  to  his  uncle,  and  did  not 
possess  either  the  latter's  originality  or  strength,  it  is  not  fair,  nevertheless, 
to  attribute  the  whole  of  this  inferiority  to  lesser  genius  on  his  part.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  while  Luca  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  Andrea  was  not  born  until  1435,  and  that  it  was  not  until  after 
1450  that  he  began  to  wield  the  chisel.  He  was,  at  least,  no  more  inferior 
to  Luca  than  his  own  age  was  inferior  to  those  nobler  days  in  art  during 
which  Luca  had  wrought.  —  from  the  French. 


28 


0la^ttt^  in  art 


E.  H.  AND  E.  W.  BLASHFIELD   AND  A.  A.   HOPKINS,  EDITORS  'VASARI'S  LIVES' 

LUCA  DELLA  ROBBIA'S  style  is  so  sober  and  contained,  so  delicate 
J  and  yet  so  healthy,  so  lovely  yet  so  free  from  prettiness,  so  full  of  sen- 
timent and  devoid  of  sentimentality,  that  it  is  hard  to  find  words  for  any 
critical  characterization.  The  vv^ork,  exactly  suited  to  its  place,  leaves  little 
to  be  said  but  that  it  is  one  of  the  loveliest  inheritances  which  the  Renais- 
sance has  bequeathed  to  us,  looking,  indeed,  says  Walter  Pater,  "as  if  a 
piece  of  the  blue  sky  had  fallen  down  into  the  streets  of  Florence"  to  be 
fixed  above  some  door  or  window.  Here  there  is  not  one  bit  of  the  bravura 
of  Verocchio  (in  his  Colleone)  or  of  Pollajuolo  (in  his  papal  monuments), 
none  of  the  "feverish  vitality"  of  Donatello;  all  is  contained  and  measured, 
his  range  of  subject  like  the  rest,  for  Luca  varies  the  latter  but  little,  and 
sings  one  long  hymn  to  Madonna,  with  angels  for  choristers.  .  .  . 

Andrea  della  Robbia,  a  little  less  measured  and  grave  than  Luca,  is  just 
as  lovely.  Somewhat  more  florid,  his  work  is  still  none  too  much  so  to  be 
perfectly  decorative.  And  in  looking  at  his  'Annunciation'  of  the  Innocenti, 
the  children's  heads  in  his  altar-pieces  of  Arezzo,  above  all  at  his  lunette 
over  the  cathedral  door  at  Prato,  one  is  tempted  to  set  him  side  by  side  with 
Luca,  or  at  the  least  to  call  him  a  most  worthy  successor. 

MRS.    OLIPHANT  <THE    MAKERS   OF  FLORENCE' 

IT  is  one  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  an  age  of  great  activity  and 
warmth  of  intellectual  impulse,  that  genius,  getting  impatient  of  universal 
repetition,  strikes  out  for  itself  new  paths  on  every  side — not  so  great,  in- 
deed, as  the  old  broad  highways  of  everlasting  art,  yet  always  interesting  so 
long  as  genius  continues  to  tread  them,  and  they  are  not  left  to  that  feeble 
imitation  which  sooner  or  later  succeeds  to  every  original  work.  Luca  della 
Robbia  was  not  one  of  those  great  men  who  dominate  art  and  leave  upon  it 
an  impression  which  lasts  for  generations.  He  had  not  the  vigor  and  force 
of  his  contemporary,  Donatello,  to  take  possession  of  and  give  a  new,  bold 
impulse  to  the  highest  branch  of  sculpture;  but  it  would  seem  that  he  was 
impatient  of  the  meaner  fate  of  toiling  after  another's  footsteps  and  taking  a 
secondary  place  in  the  profession  he  loved.  Perhaps  even  the  inferior  effect, 
when  carried  to  their  places,  of  his  own  carefully  finished  groups  in  com- 
parison with  Donatello's  dashing  bozxa  may  have  stimulated  the  artist  to  seek 
for  a  way  of  his  own  in  which  his  special  qualities  might  tell  at  their  best. 

"Feeling,"  Vasari  says,  "that  he  had  advanced  but  little  with  very  great 
labor"  in  that  larger  field  of  art  where  there  were  so  many  competitors,  "he 
resolved  to  leave  marble  and  bronze,  and  to  see  if  he  could  find  better  fruit 
elsewhere.  Therefore,  considering  that  clay  was  easily  worked  with  little 
labor,  if  a  method  could  only  be  found  to  make  it  adhere  and  to  defend  it 
from  the  action  of  time,"  he  betook  himself  to  scientific  experiments  to  find 
an  invetriamento,  glassing  or  glaze,  which  "should  make  works  in  clay  almost 
eternal."  It  is  not  within  our  range  to  discuss  whether  Luca  was  really  the 
sole  and  first  inventor  of  this  method;  but  at  least  he  was  the  first  great 


2DeUa  iloBBia 


29 


artist  who  worked  in  majolica,  and  his  beautiful  groups  in  this  material  are 
the  chief  things  that  will  occur  to  any  reader  in  connection  with  his  name. 
Nothing  more  lovely,  pure,  and  tender  than  his  white  visionary  Madonnas 
and  divine  children  can  well  be  conceived;  the  spotless  material  and  the  del- 
icate art  lend  themselves  to  each  other,  and  to  this  oft-renewed  and  always 
delightful  subject,  with  a  touching  appropriateness.  They  are  like  embodied 
dreams,  ethereal  and  pure  and  colorless,  things  made  of  heavenly  mist  or 
cloud. 

The  special  use  of  this  new  invention,  as  not  only  beautiful  in  itself  but 
affording  a  means  of  ornamentation  for  places  dove  sono  acque,  where  pictures 
cannot  be  placed  in  consequence  of  the  damp,  is  much  insisted  upon  by 
Vasari.  Even  the  damp  corners  demanded  ornament  in  those  wealthy  days 
when  artists  abounded,  and  imagination  could  not  picture  to  itself  the  hum- 
blest sanctuary  or  the  most  common  house  without  some  attempt  at  beauty 
as  well  as  use.  The  invention  binds  together  the  craft  of  the  workman  with 
the  genius  of  the  artist. 

Nothing  can  be  more  poetical  than  those  white  foam-groups  glancing  out 
of  dark  corners,  over  doorways,  always  with  a  delightful  surprise  to  the  spec- 
tator which  is  almost  like  a  natural  effect;  for  there  is  nothing  that  more 
piques  and  pleases  the  fancy  than  the  adaptation  of  a  thing  so  common  to 
uses  so  beautiful.  The  soft,  sympathetic  angels,  the  round  limbs  of  the  lovely 
children,  the  serious,  sweet  Madonnas,  glimmering  in  a  light  which  proceeds 
from  themselves,  or  seems  to  do  so,  are  always  delightful  to  behold.  In  con- 
vent cloisters,  over  the  doors  of  hospitals,  here  and  there  hung  on  a  bit  of 
dark  wall  in  some  aisle  chapel,  they  make  a  mild  radiance  about  them,  a  soft- 
ened homely  illumination,  not  great,  but  sweet,  and  full  of  ethereal  and  vis- 
ionary grace. 

And  at  the  same  time  what  a  busy  bottega  the  new  invention  made!  All 
the  princes  and  the  trades  sent  their  commissions  to  the  master.  "The  fame 
of  his  works  flew  not  only  through  Italy,  but  over  all  Europe,  and  so  many 
wished  to  have  them  that  the  Florentine  merchants  kept  Luca  continually  at 
work."  The  Delia  Robbias  made  a  school  of  themselves,  keeping  the  secret 
among  them  with  all  the  precautions  natural  to  a  family  treasure.  Andrea 
became  famous  like  his  uncle;  and  the  race  did  not  last  long  enough  to  fall 
into  much  bad  work,  but  came  to  an  end  in  the  third  generation,  carrying 
with  it  the  invention  and  the  secret.  Perhaps  it  was  well  so,  both  for  the 
fame  of  the  Delia  Robbia  work  and  for  the  taste  of  posterity.  So  easy  a 
material  could  scarcely  have  avoided  debasement  and  degradation  in  times  of 
less  originality  and  power. 

MARCEL    REYMOND  <LES    DELLA  ROBBIA' 

LUCA  DELLA  ROBBIA,  younger  by  some  years  than  either  Ghiberti  or 
^  Donatello,  learned  from  both  of  them,  and  in  a  certain  measure  suc- 
ceeded in  reconciling  their  divergent  styles.  From  Ghiberti  he  took  some- 
thing of  his  harmony  of  line  and  beauty  of  form,  like  him  he  loved  to  depict 
the  figures  of  youth,  like  him  he  preferred  to  express  the  tenderer  sentiments; 


V 


30 


0ia$ttt^  in  art 


and  in  general  bent  of  mind  he  resembled  Ghiberti  rather  than  Donatello» 
He  was  less  ardent,  less  violent,  less  audacious  than  the  latter,  nor  did  he 
question  nature  with  the  same  wish  to  be  faithful  to  her  even  in  her  irregu- 
larities. He  was  not  so  inventive,  and  did  not  explore  so  many  different 
paths;  and  yet  if  we  consider  the  merely  exterior  forms  of  his  art  it  would 
seem  that  he  was,  on  the  whole,  more  under  the  influence  of  Donatello  than 
of  Ghiberti,  for  it  was  from  Donatello  that  he  borrowed  his  general  style  of 
treating  the  bas-relief  and  the  management  of  its  different  planes.  But  if 
Luca  della  Robbia  was  inspired  by  the  work  of  Ghiberti  and  Donatello  he 
should  by  no  means  be  considered  as  an  imitator,  for  he  evolved  a  type  of 
art  different  from  theirs,  and  quite  personal  to  himself;  and  it  is  because  of 
his  evolution  of  this  type,  and  because  he  was  one  of  the  last  great  innova- 
tors of  the  fifteenth  century,  that  he  deserves  to  be  ranked  with  the  greatest 
geniuses  of  Italian  art. 

It  is  true  that  he  limited  the  already  constrained  scope  of  the  bas-relief, 
for  he  not  only  abandoned  historical  compositions,  but  discarded  all  compli- 
cated scenes,  and  all  representations  of  architecture  and  landscape,  to  present 
only  one  or  two  figures  instead.  Indeed,  in  his  hands  the  scope  of  bas-relief 
art  underwent  a  real  diminution.  It  gained,  however,  compensating  advan- 
tages. His  more  restrained  form  allowed  special  importance  to  be  given  to 
the  outline  of  the  human  body.  In  the  more  complex  reliefs  the  individual 
silhouette  loses  its  importance,  and  the  careful  drawing  of  each  figure  be- 
comes superfluous.  In  Luca's  work,  however,  the  individual  form  predom- 
inates, and  impresses  itself  upon  the  eye  as  does  a  statue.  Moreover,  by  the 
same  simplification,  Luca  attained  a  second  advantage,  that  of  concentrating 
the  observer's  attention  upon  the  face.  Perhaps  it  was  mainly  for  this  rea- 
son that  he  limited  the  number  of  personages  in  a  group  and  often  showed 
them  only  to  the  waist. 

By  his  attempt  to  gain  greater  individual  expressiveness  he  seems  rather  to 
be  ranked  with  Donatello  than  with  Ghiberti;  but  where  Donatello  would 
have  sought  for  emotion,  violence,  and  effectiveness  Luca  seeks  only  for  the 
smiling  and  the  tender,  and  seems  never  to  have  dreamed  of  sacrificing  phys- 
ical beauty  to  the  revelation  of  thought.  Indeed,  one  might  say  that  no  other 
artist  ever  so  strictly  limited  himself  to  the  depiction  of  beautiful  ideas  in 
beautiful  human  forms.  The  human  beings  which  he  chose  to  body  forth 
his  ideas  were  those  most  sensible  of  beauty  and  purity, — the  woman  and 
the  child.  The  woman,  upon  whom  Donatello  scarcely  looked,  and  whom 
Ghiberti  apparently  only  studied  for  a  certain  cold  charm  of  outline,  Luca 
presents  with  all  her  seductive  grace  of  form,  smile,  and  look.  The  child, 
which  Donatello  only  considered  as  a  moving  vivacious  and  agitated  little 
animal,  was  to  Luca  the  ideal  flower  of  human  creation,  and  he  seems  to 
have  known  how  to  love  children  as  only  mothers  know  how  to  love  them. 

Compared  to  his  predecessors,  who  solved  so  many  great  problems  and 
sought  to  express  innumerable,  thronging  ideas,  one  might  consider  that  Luca 
worked  in  a  limited  and  lesser  field.  True  as  this  may  be,  it  is  no  less  true 
that  in  all  the  domain  of  art  there  are  no  figures  which  haunt  our  memories 


SDella  iSoBbia 


31 


more  persistently  than  the  Virgins  and  children  of  Luca  della  Robbia,  and 
none  which  inspire  us  with  deeper  sympathy.  There  have  been  greater  mas- 
ters than  he;  there  have  been  none  whose  works  we  love  more.  .  .  . 

Andrea  della  Robbia  was  born  thirty-five  years  later  than  Luca.  In  the  fif- 
teenth century — that  active  period  when  minds  were  in  constant  ebullition 
and  incessantly  creating — this  short  lapse  of  time  was  sufficient  to  produce 
profound  modifications  in  the  arts.  Although  Andrea  was  educated  by  Luca, 
the  differences  between  them  in  thought  and  grasp  were  so  marked  that  no 
real  doubt  can  exist  as  to  the  differences  of  their  styles.  Andrea  did  no  work 
comparable  to  the  'Singing  Gallery';  that  charming  motive  of  children  play- 
ing, singing,  and  running  was  too  naturalistic  for  his  time.  The  great  gen- 
iuses of  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  had  been  able  to  give  such 
subjects  as  these  artistic  distinction,  but  their  followers  preferred  to  confine 
themselves  to  motives  based  more  strictly  upon  Christian  doctrine,  and  de- 
voted their  art  to  more  complex  scenes  which  seemed  to  them  richer  in  re- 
hgious  significance. 

As  a  result  of  this  same  change  of  temper,  the  intimate  study  of  nature, 
including  in  its  scope  all  created  things,  which  had  led  Ghiberti  to  model  the 
borders  of  the  Baptistery  doors,  and  Luca  to  create  the  garlands  of  Or  San 
Michele,  ceased  to  interest  the  masters  of  the  latter  half  of  the  century. 
True,  Andrea  reproduced  some  of  Luca's  motives  in  this  kind,  but  he  re- 
produced them  perfunctorily  and  without  attempting  to  breathe  new  life  into 
his  copies.  We  see,  therefore,  that  Andrea  discarded  some  of  the  essential 
qualities  of  Luca's  art.   Let  us  see  what  he  preserved. 

He  preserved  all  the  high  religious  quality  of  his  uncle's  works,  but  there 
had  come  a  change  of  times,  even  in  this  respect.  The  great  nobility  of  sen- 
timent handed  down  from  the  thirteenth  century,  and  which  we  find  still 
echoed  in  the  earlier  works  of  Luca,  no  longer  existed  in  Andrea's  day;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  Andrea's  art  was  more  profoundly  and  exclusively  relig- 
ious. With  him  the  Virgin  is  neither  the  Queen  of  Heaven  upon  her  exalted 
throne,  nor  is  she  merely  a  human  sister  playing  with  her  little  brother.  She 
might  have  been  either  in  Luca's  works.  With  Andrea,  however,  she  is  al- 
ways the  Virgin  Mother,  the  Mother  of  God,  and  the  servant  of  the  Lord, 
sometimes  on  her  knees  to  adore  Him  with  clasped  hands,  sometimes  hold- 
ing Him  in  her  arms  with  a  grace  which  breathes  both  j^y  and  humility. 
Andrea  was  more  exclusively  Christian  in  his  art  than  was  Luca,  his  thoughts 
seem  never  to  have  been  distracted  by  any  profane  preoccupation;  his  tal- 
ent embraced  the  whole  scope  of  that  art,  and  he  treated  the  most  grandiose 
and  moving  scenes.  Indeed,  Andrea,  who  is  so  often  considered  as  having 
had  merely  the  gift  of  grace,  and  never  to  have  expressed  the  virile  or  the 
passionate,  shows  himself,  on  the  contrary,  as  sometimes  one  of  the  most 
moving  and  most  forceful  masters  of  the  fifteenth  century.  We  may  say,  by 
way  of  summary,  that  Andrea's  was  such  a  soul  as  was  that  of  St.  Francis 
of  Assisi,  with  all  its  ardent  sensibility,  its  asceticism,  its  despite  of  life,  and 
its  upward  yearning  toward  the  love  of  God;  but  tender  and  impressionable 


32 


jWa^fter^f  in  art 


as  it  was,  this  soul  was  equally  fitted  to  express  the  ecstasy  of  celestial  love 
and  the  griefs  and  the  sufferings  of  human  life. 

Technically,  Andrea  availed  himself  of  all  the  possibilities  of  the  process 
which  Luca  had  bequeathed  to  him.  In  his  hands  glazed  and  tinted  terra-cotta 
work  advanced  almost  to  the  rank  of  painting,  and  he  produced  reliefs  which 
in  richness  and  complexity  are  not  undeserving  to  rank  with  pictures.  He 
did  not  limit  his  scope,  as  Luca  had  done,  to  one  or  two  figures,  but  at- 
tempted more  complex  scenes.  Indeed,  he  made  bas-relief  an  altogether  dif- 
ferent thing  from  what  it  had  been  under  Ghiberti  and  Donatello;  but  with- 
out attempting  to  utilize  perspective  and  without  employing  Donatello's 
delicate  gradations  of  modelling,  or  the  violent  contrasts  of  Ghiberti.  Keep- 
ing his  figures  almost  invariably  in  the  same  plane  and  rarely  introducing  any 
detail  of  landscape,  Andrea  contented  himself  with  gaining  contrast  by  the 
simple  juxtaposition  of  two  colors,  with  an  occasional  added  touch  which 
allowed  him  to  give  additional  expression  to  his  faces,  such  as  marking  the 
pupil  of  the  eye  and  the  line  of  the  brow.  In  a  word,  he  composed  his  altar- 
pieces  in  the  old  complex,  hieratic  manner  of  Giotto's  followers.  Luca  had 
set  him  an  example  of  this  type  of  large  religious  works  in  the  bas-reliefs  of 
the  *  Resurrection'  and  the  *  Ascension,'  and  these  are  precisely  the  two  com- 
positions which  Andrea  seems  to  have  most  studied,  and  of  which  the  influ- 
ences are  most  generally  visible  in  his  works. — from  the  French. 

WALTER   PATER  <THE  RENAISSANCE' 

I SUPPOSE  nothing  brings  the  real  air  of  a  Tuscan  town  so  vividly  to 
mind  as  those  pieces  of  pale  blue  and  white  earthenware,  by  which  Luca 
della  Robbia  is  best  known,  like  fragments  of  the  milky  sky  itself,  fallen  into 
the  cool  streets,  and  breaking  into  the  darkened  churches.  And  no  work  is  less 
imitable:  like  Tuscan  wine,  it  loses  its  savor  when  moved  from  its  birth- 
place, from  the  crumbling  walls  where  it  was  first  placed.  Part  of  the  charm 
of  this  work,  its  grace  and  purity  and  finish  of  expression,  is  common  to  all 
the  Tuscan  sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  century;  for  Luca  was  first  of  all  a 
worker  in  marble,  and  his  works  in  earthenware  only  transfer  to  a  different 
material  the  principles  of  his  sculpture. 

These  Tuscan  sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  century  worked  for  the  most  part 
in  low  relief.  They  are  haters  of  all  heaviness  and  emphasis,  of  strongly- 
opposed  light  and  shade,  and  seek  their  means  of  expression  among  those 
last  refinements  of  shadow,  which  are  almost  invisible  except  in  a  strong 
light,  and  which  the  finest  pencil  can  hardly  follow.  What  is  the  precise 
value  of  this  system  of  sculpture,  this  low  relief?  Luca  della  Robbia  and 
the  other  sculptors  of  the  school  to  which  he  belongs,  have  before  them  the 
universal  problem  of  their  art;  and  this  system  of  low  relief  is  the  means  by 
which  they  meet  and  overcome  the  special  limitation  of  sculpture — a  limi- 
tation resulting  from  the  material  and  essential  conditions  of  all  sculptured 
work,  and  which  consists  in  the  tendency  of  this  work  to  a  hard  realism,  a 
one-sided  presentment  of  mere  form,  that  solid  material  frame  which  only 


33 


motion  can  relieve,  a  thing  of  heavy  shadows,  and  an  individuality  of  ex- 
pression pushed  to  caricature.  Against  this  tendency  to  the  hard  present- 
ment of  mere  form  trying  vainly  to  compete  with  the  reality  of  nature  itself, 
all  noble  sculpture  constantly  struggles:  each  great  system  of  sculpture  re- 
sisting in  its  own  way,  etherealizing,  spiritualizing,  relieving  its  hardness,  its 
heaviness  and  death.  The  use  of  color  in  sculpture  is  but  an  unskilful  con- 
trivance to  effect,  by  borrowing  from  another  art,  what  the  nobler  sculpture 
effects  by  strictly  appropriate  means.  To  get  not  color,  but  the  equivalent 
of  color;  to  secure  the  expression  and  the  play  of  life;  to  expand  the  too 
fixed  individuality  of  pure,  unrelieved,  uncolored  form — this  is  the  problem 
which  the  three  great  styles  in  sculpture  have  solved  in  three  different  ways. 

Allgemeinheit — breadth,  generality,  universality — is  the  word  chosen  by 
Winckelmann,  and  after  him  by  Goethe  and  many  German  critics,  to  ex- 
press that  law  of  the  most  excellent  Greek  sculptures,  of  Phidias  and  his 
pupils,  which  prompted  them  constantly  to  seek  the  type  in  the  individual, 
to  abstract  and  express  only  what  is  structural  and  permanent,  to  purge  from 
the  individual  all  that  belongs  only  to  him,  all  the  accidents,  the  feelings, 
and  actions  of  the  special  moment,  all  that  (because  in  its  own  nature  it  en- 
dures but  for  a  moment)  is  apt  to  look  like  a  frozen  thing  if  one  arrests  it. 

In  this  way  their  works  came  to  be  like  some  subtle  extract  or  essence, 
or  almost  like  pure  thoughts  or  ideas:  and  hence  the  breadth  of  humanity  in 
them,  that  detachment  from  the  conditions  of  a  particular  place  or  people, 
which  has  carried  their  influence  far  beyond  the  age  which  produced  them, 
and  insured  them  universal  acceptance. 

That  was  the  Greek  way  of  relieving  the  hardness  and  unspirituality  of 
pure  form.  But  it  involved  to  a  certain  degree  the  sacrifice  of  what  we  call 
expression-^  and  a  system  of  abstraction  which  aimed  always  at  the  broad  and 
general  type,  at  the  purging  away  from  the  individual  of  what  belonged  only 
to  him,  and  of  the  mere  accidents  of  a  particular  time  and  place,  imposed 
upon  the  range  of  effects  open  to  the  Greek  sculptor  limits  somewhat  nar- 
rowly defined;  -and  when  Michelangelo  came,  with  a  genius  spiritualized  by 
the  reverie  of  the  middle  age,  penetrated  by  its  spirit  of  inwardness  and  in- 
trospection, living  not  a  mere  outward  life  like  the  Greek,  but  a  life  full  of 
inward  experiences,  sorrows,  consolations,  a  system  which  sacrificed  so  much 
of  what  was  inward  and  unseen  could  not  satisfy  him.  To  him,  lover  and 
student  of  Greek  sculpture  as  he  was,  work  which  did  not  bring  what  was 
inward  to  the  surface,  which  was  not  concerned  with  individual  expression, 
with  individual  character  and  feeHng,  the  special  history  of  the  special  soul, 
was  not  worth  doing  at  all. 

And  so,  in  a  way  quite  personal  and  peculiar  to  himself,  which  often  is, 
and  always  seems,  the  effect  of  accident,  he  secured  for  his  work  individual- 
ity and  intensity  of  expression,  while  he  avoided  a  too  hard  realism,  that 
tendency  to  harden  into  caricature  which  the  representation  of  feeling  in 
sculpture  must  always  have.  This  effect  Michelangelo  gains  by  leaving 
nearly  all  his  sculpture  in  a  puzzling  sort  of  incompleteness,  which  suggests 
rather  than  realizes  actual  form.   Many  have  wondered  at  that  incomplete- 


34 


^a^ttt  ^  in  3lrt 


ness,  suspecting,  however,  that  Michelangelo  himself  loved  and  w^as  loath  to 
change  it,  and  feeling  at  the  same  time  that  they  too  would  lose  something 
if  the  half-realized  form  ever  quite  emerged  from  the  stone,  so  rough  hewn 
here,  so  delicately  finished  there;  and  they  have  wished  to  fathom  the  charm 
of  this  incompleteness.  Well!  that  incompleteness  is  Michelangelo's  equiv- 
alent for  color  in  sculpture;  it  is  his  way  of  etherealizing  pure  form,  of  re- 
lieving its  hard  realism,  and  communicating  to  it  breath,  pulsation,  the  effect 
of  hfe. 

Midway  between  these  two  systems — the  system  of  the  Greek  sculptors 
and  the  system  of  Michelangelo — comes  the  system  of  Luca  della  Robbia 
and  the  other  Tuscan  sculptors  of  the  fifteenth  century,  partaking  both  of 
the  Jllge?neinheit  of  the  Greeks,  their  way  of  extracting  certain  select  ele- 
ments only  of  pure  form  and  sacrificing  all  the  rest,  and  the  studied  incom- 
pleteness of  Michelangelo,  relieving  that  expression  of  intensity,  passion, 
energy,  which  might  otherwise  have  hardened  into  caricature.  Like  Michel- 
angelo, these  sculptors  fill  their  works  with  intense  and  individualized  ex- 
pression, and  they  unite  the  elements  of  tranquillity,  of  repose,  to  intense  and 
individual  expression,  by  a  system  of  conventionalism  as  skilful  and  subtle  as 
that  of  the  Greeks,  subduing  all  such  curves  as  indicate  solid  form,  and 
throwing  the  whole  into  lower  relief.  .  .  . 

The  work  of  Luca  della  Robbia  possessed  in  an  unusual  measure  that 
special  characteristic  which  belongs  to  all  the  workmen  of  his  school,  a  char- 
acteristic which,  even  in  the  absence  of  much  positive  information  about 
their  actual  history,  seems  to  bring  those  workmen  themselves  very  near  to 
us — the  impress  of  a  personal  quality,  a  profound  expressiveness,  what  the 
French  call  intimite,  by  which  is  meant  some  subtler  sense  of  originality — 
the  seal  on  a  man's  work  of  what  is  most  inward  and  peculiar  in  his  moods 
and  manner  of  apprehension :  it  is  what  we  call  expression^  carried  to  its  high- 
est intensity  of  degree. 


C|)e  l^orfes  of  iluca  anti  ^nlijcea  tiella  3^ot)bia 

SINGING   GALLERY  MUSEUM    OF   THE    CATHEDRAL:  FLORENCE 

THE  earliest  known  work  by  Luca  della  Robbia  is  the  world-renowned 
'Singing  Gallery'  {cantoria)^  executed  in  1431-40  for  the  Cathedral 
of  Florence,  to  be  placed  over  one  of  the  doors  of  the  sacristy;  Donatello 
being  commissioned  two  years  later  to  make  a  corresponding  gallery  for  a 
similar  position  over  an  opposite  door.  Both  Donatello's  and  Luca's  gal- 
leries are  now  in  the  Museum  of  the  Cathedral. 

"Luca's  work,"  writes  Dr.  Bode,  "exhibits  in  ten  reliefs  groups  of  youths 
and  maidens  of  different  ages,  singing  in  chorus,  playing  upon  musical  in- 
struments, or  dancing  hand  in  hand.  The  variety  in  the  composition,  the 
diversity  of  the  types,  the  entirely  naturalistic  rendering  of  the  expressions 


35 


of  the  youthful  singers  and  musicians,  each  in  accordance  with  his  voice  or 
instrument,  the  rich  and  yet  perfectly  simple  arrangement  made  possible  by 
the  classic  style  of  high  relief,  and  the  finished  execution  of  this  work  in 
marble,  would  ensure  it  a  place  among  the  masterpieces  of  the  Renaissance 
even  were  it  not  for  the  beauty  of  the  forms  and  grace  of  the  movements 
which  have  given  it  its  popularity." 

"Among  those  dancing  children  and  players  upon  musical  instruments," 
writes  Perkins,  "there  is  one  group  of  choristers  whose  music  has  gone  out 
unto  the  ends  of  the  world.  Who  that  has  listened  to  the  shrill  treble,  the 
rich  contralto,  the  luscious  tenor,  and  the  sonorous  bass  has  failed  to  feel  with 
the  poet  when  looking  upon  another  *  marble  brede  of  men  and  maidens,' 
that  'heard  melodies  are  sweet,  but  those  unheard  are  sweeter'?" 

"Luca's  organ  gallery  still  remains  the  finest  and  most  characteristic  of 
his  achievements,"  writes  Cosmo  Monkhouse.  "It  appears  to  have  been  the 
only  opportunity  that  he  had  of  displaying  his  gifts  with  perfect,  or  almost 
perfect,  freedom.  He  had  no  tradition  to  follow,  no  archaic  type  or  eccle- 
siastical model  to  which  he  must  conform.  The  love  of  nature  and  his  sense 
of  art  were  his  only  guides,  and  he  produced  these  lovely  reliefs,  in  which 
observation  and  fancy  were  regulated  by  classical  feeling,  in  a  manner  before 
unknown  and  scarcely  equalled  since.  For  once  in  that  age  the  artist  was 
emancipated." 

TOMB  OF  BISHOP  BENOZZO  FEDERIGHI      C  H  U  R  C  H  O  F  S  A  N  T  A  T  RI N  IT  A  :  FLORENCE 

ONE  of  the  most  beautiful  of  the  numerous  fifteenth-century  tombs  of 
Tuscany  is  that  of  Benozzo  Federighi,  Bishop  of  Fiesole.  In  the  year 
1455,  some  five  years  after  the  death  of  the  bishop,  Luca  della  Robbia  en- 
gaged to  execute  this  monument  in  marble,  and  according  to  the  official  reg- 
ister, it  was  completed  before  1457. 

Cavalucci  and  Molinier  regard  it  as  a  transition  between  the  works  of 
Luca  in  marble  and  those  in  terra-cotta,  and  consider  that  in  this,  one  of  his 
very  greatest  creations,  the  artist  has  most  happily  combined  the  art  of  the 
sculptor  proper  and  that  of  the  worker  in  majolica.  In  describing  it  Pro- 
fessor Middleton  writes:  "A  very  beautiful  efiigy  of  the  bishop,  in  a  restful 
pose,  lies  on  a  sarcophagus  sculptured  with  graceful  reliefs  of  angels  holding 
a  wreath  which  contains  the  inscription.  Above  are  three-quarter  length 
figures  of  Christ  between  St.  John  and  the  Virgin,  delicately  carved  in  low 
relief.  The  whole  is  surrounded  by  a  rectangular  frame  formed  of  painted 
majolica  tiles  of  the  most  exquisite  beauty.  On  each  tile  is  painted,  with 
enamel  pigments,  a  bunch  of  flowers  and  fruit  in  brilliant  realistic  colors,  the 
loveliness  of  which  is  very  hard  to  describe.  The  perfect  mean  between 
truth  to  nature  and  decorative  treatment  has  never  been  more  thoroughly 
obtained  than  in  these  wonderful  tile  pictures,  which  are  of  special  interest 
as  being  among  the  earliest  examples  of  Italian  majolica." 


36 


0ia^ttt^  in  ^tt 


MADONNA   AND   CHILD    WITH   ANGELS  VIA   DELL'    AGNOLO:  FLORENCE 

OVER  the  door  of  a  small  shop  in  a  narrow  by-street  of  Florence  is  set 
a  beautiful  relief  representing  the  Virgin  —  "here  wholly  human,  and 
we  love  her  none  the  less  for  that  reason" — with  the  infant  Saviour,  who 
holds  a  scroll  upon  which  are  inscribed  the  words  "ego  sum  lux  mundi," 
while  on  each  side  is  a  lovely  angel  bearing  a  vase  filled  with  lilies.  The 
whole  is  surrounded  by  an  exquisitely  wrought  garland  of  flowers,  tinted  in 
various  pale  colors.  There  is  no  question  that  this  lunette  is  Luca  della  Rob- 
bia's  handiwork.  The  date  which  should  be  assigned  to  it  is,  however,  un- 
certain. Dr.  Bode  has  placed  it  before  1431,  Professor  Marquand  dates  it  as 
between  1430  and  1440,  and  Reymond  considers  it  as  a  still  later  work, 
dating  about  1450. 

"It  seems  strange,"  writes  Marquand,  "that  this  Madonna  does  not  occur 
again  in  Luca's  work.  Her  face  perhaps  modified  his  angel  type,  but  as  a 
Madonna  she  disappears.  After  this  burst  of  realistic  inspiration,  in  which 
he  may  have  portrayed  the  features  of  some  living  woman,  he  returns  to  a 
type  more  along  the  old  lines,  to  which  he  adheres,  more  or  less  closely,  in 
all  his  later  works." 

THE   VISITATION  CHURCH    OF   SAN   GIOVANNI   FUORCIVITAS:  PISTOJA 

IN  a  dimly  lighted  niche  over  one  of  the  altars  of  the  old  Church  of  San 
Giovanni  fuorcivitas,  Pistoja,  is  placed  this  life-sized  group,  in  white  enam- 
elled terra-cotta.  It  has  frequently  been  ascribed  to  Fra  Paola,  a  Pistojan 
painter,  who,  however,  is  not  known  to  have  worked  in  sculpture.  Cava- 
lucci,  Gsell-Fels,  and  Marcel  Reymond  attribute  it  to  Andrea  della  Robbia, 
while  Professor  Marquand  and  Dr.  Bode  (who  calls  it  "the  most  perfect 
group  of  the  early  Renaissance")  pronounce  it  without  hesitation  the  work 
of  Luca. 

"Its  exquisite  loveliness  will  long  be  remembered  by  those  who  have  seen 
it,"  writes  Bianciardi.  "Elizabeth  has  rushed  to  meet  the  Virgin  and  thrown 
herself  on  her  knees.  Her  upturned  face  and  parted  lips  betoken  the  excite- 
ment of  joyful  surprise  tempered  by  humihty  and  awe.  'Whence  is  this  to 
me,  that  the  mother  of  my  Lord  should  come  to  me?'  Mary,  on  the  con- 
trary, is  calm  and  dignified.  Her  slight  figure  is  almost  erect,  and  her  right 
hand  rests  on  the  shoulder  of  Elizabeth.  Her  face  is  very  noble  and  pure  in 
its  outlines.  She  has  not  yet  spoken,  but  her  answer  to  Elizabeth's  salutation 
is  already  framed  within  her  heart." 

BAMBINI  HOSPITAL    OF   THE   INNOCENTi:  FLORENCE 

THE  medallions  of  bambini^  or  infants  in  swaddling-clothes  (two  of  which 
are  shown  in  our  plate),  from  the  facade  of  the  Foundling  Hospital  in 
Florence,  are  among  the  first  works  executed  by  Andrea  della  Robbia  alone. 
Cavalucci  and  MoHnier  consider  them  to  date  from  about  1463,  when  Andrea 
was  but  twenty-eight  years  old,  and  Luca  was  still  alive. 

"They  are  the  simplest  of  all  Andrea's  works,"  writes  Reymond,  "and 


37 


those  which  show  Luca's  influence  most,  and  it  is  not  unHkely  that  the  elder 
master  here  advised  and  counselled  his  young  nephew.  It  is  not  improbable 
that  it  was  Luca  who  pointed  out  how  effective  this  repetition  of  the  same  mo- 
tive in  successive  medallions  might  be  made,  and  the  interest  that  might  be 
derived  from  presenting  the  same  idea  again  and  again  in  varying  forms;  for, 
accomplished  artist  as  Andrea  must  have  been  at  this  time  (and  Luca's  will 
makes  it  clear  that  in  1471  his  nephew  was  already  renowned),  the  masterly 
simplicity  of  the  charming  conception  of  decorating  the  facade  of  a  hospital 
for  foundlings  by  a  series  of  medallions,  each  enclosing  one  little  swaddled 
child,  must  have  been  due  to  a  master  thoroughly  familiar  with  all  the  re- 
sources of  his  especial  art." 

"These  delightful  little  foundlings,"  write  Cavalucci  and  Molinier,  "who 
by  their  gestures  seem  to  invoke  our  aid  and  pity,  combine  in  the  most  dec- 
orative way  to  adorn  the  loggia.  The  white  enamel  of  their  flesh,  and  the 
swaddling-bands,  occasionally  tinted  with  brown,  relieved  against  the  bright 
blue  of  the  backgrounds,  form  cheerful  notes  against  the  sombre  tones  of  the 
wall.  Perhaps  these  bamhini  are  the  best  known  of  Andrea's  works,  and  they 
fully  deserve  their  popularity." 

MEETING  OF  ST.  FRANCIS  AND  ST.  DOMINIC        LOGGIA  DI  SAN  PAOLO:  FLORENCE 

ONE  of  Andrea  della  Robbia's  latest  and  most  perfect  works,  this  bas- 
relief  depicts  a  meeting  between  the  founders  of  the  two  great  monkish 
orders,  St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic.  In  the  expression  of  the  faces  (which 
Andrea  left  without  enamel  in  order  that  the  finer  lines  might  not  be  ob- 
scured), in  the  treatment  of  the  draperies,  which  recall  those  of  Fra  Barto- 
lommeo  or  Raphael,  and  in  the  carving  of  the  hands,  the  work  is  unsurpassed. 
"It  may  be  counted,"  write  Cavalucci  and  Molinier,  "as  among  the  very 
best  productions  of  the  Della  Robbia  family,  and  has  all  the  simpHcity  and 
dignity  of  the  works  of  Luca  himself.  Andrea  was  rarely  able  to  produce  so 
great  an  effect  with  so  simple  a  motive.  The  movement  of  St.  Francis  as 
he  hastens  into  St.  Dominic's  outstretched  arms,  the  effective  contrast  be- 
tween the  two  costumes,  the  care  with  which  the  heads  are  modelled,  and 
the  depth  and  fineness  of  the  expressions  render  this  bas-relief,  as  a  whole,  a 
veritable  masterpiece." 

THE   ANNUNCIATION  HOSPITAL   OF   THE   INNOCENTi:  FLORENCE 

THIS  exquisitely  decorative  lunette,  with  its  white  figures  relieved  against 
a  blue  ground,  was  by  the  elder  critics  considered  as  Luca  della  Rob- 
bia's work;  but  modern  authorities  (with  the  exception  of  Dr.  Bode,  who 
has  recently  changed  his  opinion  in  favor  of  Giovanni  della  Robbia)  are 
practically  unanimous  in  considering  it  as  Andrea's  handiwork,  and  Cava- 
lucci and  Molinier  regard  the  angel  in  particular,  which  is  more  graceful 
than  any  of  Luca's  figures  and  yet  without  that  insipidity  which  marks  the 
later  work  of  the  school,  as  being  "as  good  as  a  signature  by  Andrea." 
They  go  on  to  say:  "This  subject,  although  a  very  common  one  in  the 


38 


Pia^tttg  in  art 


works  of  the  Delia  Robbias,  has  never  been  treated  with  greater  loveliness 
or  charm.  Demanding  little  skill  in  composition,  and  eminently  fitted  to 
exhibit  skill  in  handling  the  processes  of  bas-relief,  it  was  eminently  suited 
to  Andrea's  graceful  talent." 

CORONATION   OF   THE   VIRGIN  CHURCH    OF   THE    OSSERVANZA:    NEAR  SIENA 

IN  the  little  church  belonging  to  the  suppressed  Franciscan  monastery  of 
the  Osservanza,  outside  the  walls  of  Siena,  may  be  seen  this  *  Coronation 
of  the  Virgin,'  one  of  the  most  celebrated  and  most  beautiful  of  the  works 
of  Andrea  della  Robbia.  The  figures  are  white  upon  a  blue  ground,  no  other 
color  being  used,  with  the  exception  of  delicate  touches  of  gold  in  the  dra- 
pery of  the  angels  and  in  the  pattern  of  the  Virgin's  robe.  Upon  the  predella 
are  represented  the  'Annunciation,'  the  'Assumption,'  and  the  'Nativity.' 

Marcel  Reymond  calls  this  'Coronation'  "one  of  the  masterpieces  of 
Italian  art,"  and  says:  "In  the  tenderness  of  its  sentiment  Fra  Angelico 
alone  can  here  be  compared  with  Andrea  della  Robbia.  The  charm  and 
poetry  of  the  composition  are  indescribable — the  affectionate  gesture  of  God 
the  Father,  the  Virgin's  look  of  joy  and  humility,  and  the  science  with  which 
the  group  of  angels  is  arranged  around  her  kneeling  figure,  and  the  expressions 
of  ecstasy  and  love  transfiguring  the  faces  of  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Francis  of 
Assisi." 

MADONNA    AND   CHILD   WITH    SAINTS  CATHEDRAL    OF  PRATO 

THIS  relief,  which  stands  above  the  door  of  the  Cathedral  of  Prato,  is 
one  of  the  loveliest  of  Andrea  della  Robbia's  works,  and  bears  the  date 
1489.  It  was  for  long,  and  even  at  Prato,  considered  to  be  by  Luca,  but 
critics  are  now  unanimous  in  assigning  it  to  his  nephew. 

The  Madonna,  with  the  Christ-child  on  her  arm,  stands  between  the  mar- 
tyred saints,  St.  Stephen  on  her  right,  and  St.  Lawrence  on  her  left.  The 
Child  carries  his  finger  to  his  mouth, — a  characteristic  action  to  be  found 
in  almost  all  Andrea's  representations  of  the  Child  at  the  period  when  this 
work  was  executed. 

"The  relief  is  especially  remarkable,"  says  Reymond,  "for  the  tender  love- 
liness of  the  Virgin's  expression,  and  the  beautiful  figures  of  the  accompany- 
ing saints.  The  excellence  of  the  draperies,  too,  should  be  noticed.  They 
show  more  complication  than  in  Andrea's  previous  works,  yet  without  losing 
anything  of  his  perfection  of  handling." 

THE   PRINCIPAL   WORKS   OF   LUCA   DELLA   ROBBIA,    WITH  THEIR 
PRESENT  LOCATIONS 

ENGLAND.  London,  South  Kensington  Museum:  Coat  of  Arms  of  King  Rene 
of  Anjou  —  FRANCE.  Paris,  Cluny  Museum:  Justice  and  Temperance  (medal- 
lions)—  Paris,  Louvre :  Virgin  and  Six  Angels;  Virgin  and  Four  Saints  —  Paris,  Col- 
lection OF  M.  FouLC :  Adoring  Madonna  —  GERMANY.  Berlin  Museum  :  Madonna 
and  Angels;  Madonna  (5) — ITALY.  Florence,  Campanile:  Five  marble  bas-reliefs 
—  Florence,  Cathedral:  Resurrection;  Ascension;  Sacristy  Doors;  Two  Angels  — 


2DeIIa  Mnhbia 


39 


Florence,  Museum  of  the  Cathedral:  Singing  Gallery  (Plates  i  and  ii);  God  the 
Father}  Madonna  and  Child  —  Florence,  Hospital  of  the  Innocenti:  Madonna  and 
Child  —  Florence,  National  Museum:  Deliverance  of  St.  Peter;  Crucifixion  of  St,  Peter; 
Madonna  of  San  Pierino;  Madonna  of  the  Roses;  Madonna  of  the  Apple;  Adoring  Ma- 
donna; Madonna  and  Child  (2)  —  Florence,  Church  of  Or  San  Michele:  Four  Medal- 
lions—  Florence,  Church  of  Santa  Croce,  Pazzi  Chapel:  Evangelists  and  Apostles 

—  Florence,  Quaratesi  Palace:  Coat  of  Arms  (2)  —  Florence,  Church  of  Santa 
Trinita  :  Tomb  of  Bishop  Benozzo  Federighi  (Plate  iii)  —  Florence,  Via  dell'  Agnolo  : 
Madonna  and  Child  (Plate  iv)  —  Florence,  Collection  of  Marchese  Carlo  Viviani 
DELLA  RoBBiA :  Virgin  and  Child  — Impruneta,  Collegiate  Church  :  Two  Tabernacles; 
Crucifixion — Peretola,  Church  of  Santa  Maria:  Tabernacle  —  Pistoja,  Church  of 
San  Giovanni  fuorcivitas:  The  Visitation  (Plate  v)  —  San  Miniato,  Church:  Ceiling 
of  the  Chapel  of  the  Crucifix;  Ceiling  of  the  Chapel  of  the  Cardinal  of  Portugal  —  Urbino, 
Church  of  San  Domenico:  Madonna  and  Child  —  UNITED  STATES.  Boston,  Col- 
lection OF  Quincy  a.  Shaw,  Esq.:  Madonna  and  Child  —  New  York,  Metropol- 
itan Museum:  Madonna  and  Child. 

the    principal   works    of   ANDREA    DELLA    ROBBIA,  WITH 
THEIR    PRESENT  LOCATIONS 

ENGLAND.  London,  South  Kensington  Museum:  Adoration  of  the  Magi;  Ma- 
donna and  Child —  GERMANY.  Berlin  Museum:  Annunciation;  Madonna  and 
Saints  —  ITALY.  Arezzo,  Cathedral:  Altar-piece;  Crucifixion;  Madonna  and  Saints  — 
Arezzo,  Church  of  Santa  Maria  delle  Grazie:  Marble  Altar  —  Arezzo,  Church 
of  Santa  Maria  in  Grado:  Altar-piece — Assisi,  Church  of  Santa  Maria  degli 
Angeli:  Altar-piece  —  Camaldoli  (Casentino):  Altar-piece  —  Florence,  Academy: 
Resurrection;  Assumption;  Madonna  and  Child  (4)  —  Florence,  Hospital  of  the  Inno- 
centi :  Bambini  (Plate  vi) ;  Annunciation  (Plate  viii)  —  Florence,  Loggia  di  San  Paolo  : 
St.  Francis  and  St.  Dominic  (Plate  vii)  —  Florence,  Museum  of  the  Cathedral: 
Madonna  —  Florence,  National  Museum:  Madonna  and  Child  (5);  Adoring  Madonna 
(5)  —  Florence,  Hospital  of  Santa  Maria  Nuova:  Madonna  and  Child  —  Florence, 
Church  of  San  Gaetano:  Madonna  of  the  Bertello  —  Fojano,  Collegiate  Church: 
Madonna  of  the  Girdle —  Gradara  (Rocca  di),  Palazzo  Bianco  :  Altar-piece  —  Memme- 
nano, Church  of  San  Matteo:  Altar-piece — Montepulciano:  Altar-piece  —  Pistoja, 
Cathedral:  Madonna  and  Angels  —  Prato,  Cathedral:  Madonna  and  Child  (Plate  x) 

—  Prato,  Church  of  Santa  Maria  delle  Carceri:  Medallions  of  Evangelists  — 
Santa  Fiora  Monte  Amiata:  Madonna  of  the  Girdle;  Baptism  of  Christ — Siena, 
Church  of  the  Osservanza:  Coronation  of  the  Virgin  (Plate  ix)  —  La  Verna:  Annun- 
ciation; Adoration;  Crucifixion;  Ascension;  Madonna  of  the  Girdle;  Madonna  and  Saints 

—  ViTERBO,  Church  of  the  Madonna  della  Quercia:  Madonna  and  Saints;  St. 
Peter  Martyr;  St.  Thomas  Aquinas  —  UNITED  STATES.  New  YORK,  METROPOLI- 
TAN Museum:  Altar-piece. 


Bella  3^ol)li(a  ^Sililtograpljj 

A   LIST   OF   THE    PRINCIPAL   BOOKS    AND    MAGAZINE   ARTICLES  DEALING 
WITH   LUCA    AND   ANDREA   DELLA  ROBBIA 

BALDINUCCI,  F.  Notizie  dei  professor!  del  disegno.  (Florence,  1845-47) — Bar- 
BET  DE  JouY,  H.  Les  Delia  Robbia.  (Paris,  1855)  —  Bode,  W.  Die  Kiinstlerfamilie 
della  Robbia  [in  Dohme's  Kunst  und  Kiinstler,  etc.].  (Leipsic,  1878)  —  Bode,  W. 
Italienische  Bildhauer  der  Renaissance.  (Berlin,  1887)  —  Bode,  W.  Denkmaler  der 
Renaissance-Sculptur  Toscanas.    (Munich,  1892-94)  —  Burckhardt,  J.    Der  Cicerone 


40 


jma^ter^  in  %tt 


[edited  by  W.  Bode] .  (Leipsic,  1898)  —  Burlamacchi,  L.  Liica  della  Robbia.  (Lon- 
don, 1890)  —  Casotti,  B.  Memorie  istoriche  della  Miracolosa  Immagine  di  Maria  Vergine 
deir  Impruneta.  (Florence,  17 14)  —  Cavalucci,  C.  J.,  and  Molinier,  E,  Les  Della 
Robbia.  (Paris,  1884)  —  Cicognara,  L.  Storia  della  scultura.  (Prato,  1824)  —  Fara- 
BULiNi,  D.  Sopra  un  monumento  della  scuola  di  Luca  della  Robbia.  (Rome,  1886)  — 
Genolini,  a.  Maioliche  italiane.  (Milan,  1881) — Jacouemart,  A.  Ceramic  Art. 
(London,  1873)  —  Laborde,  H.  de.  Le  Chateau  du  Bois  de  Boulogne.  (Paris,  1853)  — 
LuBKE,  W.  History  of  Sculpture:  Trans,  by  F.  E.  Bunnett.  (London,  1872) — Me- 
lani,  a.  Manuele  di  scultura  italiana.  (Milan,  1899) — Middleton,  J.  H.  Delia 
Robbia  [in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica].  (Edinburgh,  1883). — Muntz,  E.  Histoire  de 
Tart  pendant  la  Renaissance.  (Paris,  1889-95)  —  Muntz,  E.  Florence  et  la  Toscane. 
(Paris,  1897) — Oliphant,  M.  The  Makers  of  Florence.  (London,  1876)  —  Pater,  W. 
Renaissance  Studies.  (London,  1873)  —  Perkins,  C.  C.  Tuscan  Sculptors.  (London, 
1864)  —  Perkins,  C.  C.  Handbook  of  Italian  Sculpture.  (New  York,  1883) — Rey- 
MOND,  M.  Les  Delia  Robbia.  (Florence,  1897)  —  Rio,  A.  F.  L'Art  chretien.  (Paris, 
1861)  —  Robinson,  J.  C.  Italian  Sculpture  of  the  Middle  Ages,  etc.  (London,  1862)  — 
RuMOHR,  C.  F.  VON.  Italienische  Forschungen.  (Berlin,  1827)  —  Scott,  L.  Luca  della 
Robbia.  (New  York,  1883)  —  Scott,  L.  Sculpture,  Renaissance  and  Modern.  (London, 
1 891)  —  Symonds,  J.  A.  Renaissance  in  Italy.  (London,  1897) — Van  Rensselaer, 
M.  G.  Six  Portraits.  (New  York,  1889) — Vasari,  G.  Lives  of  the  Painters.  (New 
York,  1897)  —  Yriarte,  C.    Florence.    (Paris,  1881.) 

magazine  articles 

AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  ARCHEOLOGY,  1891:  Andrea  della  Robbia  s 
uTjl 'Assumption  of  the  Virgin'  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum,  New  York  (A.  Marquand). 
1893:  Some  Unpublished  Monuments  by  Luca  della  Robbia  (A.  Marquand).  1894:  The 
Madonnas  of  Luca  della  Robbia  (A.  Marquand)  —  Archivio  storico  dell'  arte,  1888: 
Nuovi  documenti  suir  altare  robbiano  nella  chiesa  di  San  Medardo  in  Arcevia  (A.  Anselmi). 
1888:  La  Chiesa  di  San  Giovanni  de'  Fiorentini  a  Viterbo  (E.  Gentile).  1889:  Fra 
Mattia  della  Robbia  (D.  Gnoli).  1890-91 :  Luca  della  Robbia  ed  i  suoi  precursori  (W. 
Bode).  1891 :  II  Tabernacolo  nella  sacrestia  della  chiesa  di  San  Niccolo  da  Tolentino  in 
Prato  (G.  Carotti).  1892:  II  Museo  nazionale  di  Firenze  nel  triennio  1889-91  (U.  Rossi). 
1895:  Le  Maioliche  dei  Della  Robbia  nella  provincia  di  Pesaro-Urbino  (A.  Anselmi) 
—  Athen^um,  1886:  Review  of  Cavalucci' s  and  Molinier's  <  Les  Della  Robbia'  —  The 
Brickbuilder,  1895:  Luca  della  Robbia  and  his  Use  of  Glazed  Terra-cotta  (A.  Mar- 
quand). 1896:  Andrea  della  Robbia  and  his  Altar-pieces  (A.  Marquand)  —  Church 
Quarterly,  1885:  Luca  della  Robbia  and  his  School  —  Gazette  Archeologique, 
1884:  Une  oeuvre  inedite  de  Luca  della  Robbia  (E.  Molinier)  —  Gazette  des  Beaux- 
Arts,  1874:  Les  Musiciens  de  Luca  della  Robbia  (P.  Senneville).  1888:  La  Renaissance 
au  Musee  de  Berlin  (W.  Bode).  1890:  La  Della  Robbia  de  Marseille  (P.  Trabaud)  — 
Harper's  Monthly  Magazine,  1880:  Luca  della  Robbia  and  his  School  (E.  D.  R.  Bian- 
ciardi)  —  Jahrbuch  der  Preussischen  Kunstsammlungen,  1885:  Die  florentiner 
Thonbilder  in  den  ersten  Jahrzehnten  des  Quattrocento  (W.  Bode).  1886:  Neue  Erwer- 
bungen  fiir  die  Abteilung  der  christlichen  Plastik  in  den  Museen  zu  Berlin  (W.  Bode). 
1890:  Versuche  der  Ausbildung  des  genre  in  der  florentiner  Plastik  des  Quattrocento  (W. 
Bode).  1900:  Luca  della  Robbia  (W.  Bode)  —  Music,  1897:  The  Singing  Boys  of  Luca 
della  Robbia  (F.  Everham)  —  Portfolio,  1886:  Luca  della  Robbia  (C.  Monkhouse)  — 
Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,  1865:  La  Sculpture  florentine  (H.  de  Laborde)  —  Scribner's 
Magazine,  1893:  A  Search  for  Della  Robbia  Monuments  in  Italy  (A.  Marquand). 


MASTERS   IN  ART 


BIGELOW,  KENNARD 


Makers  ^ 
Importers 

of  Fine 
Wooden 

Clocks 


English, 
French 

and 
German 
Cases. 


5"  WASHINGTON  ST  BOSTON 


OUR    ILLUSTRATED     CATALOGUE  OF 

Art  and  Architectural  Publications 

WILL     BE     SENT     ON  R.EQUEST 


We  desire  to  ca^ll  the  attention  of  those  interested  in  Colonial  Furniture  to 

The  Fxxrnittire  erf  Otir  ForeJ^cit hers  Price.  $i6.oo 
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Veriad  Price.  $10.00 


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Other  trains  leave  either  city  at 
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The  4  and  11  P.M.  run  daily.  The  4  P.M.  has  dining-car. 


ROWNEY'S  Finrsl  Cround. 

COLOURS     Most  Vcrnmnen^.  IN  THE  MARKET. 

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FOR  OIL  OR  WATER-COLOUR  PAINTING 


ROWNEY'S 
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MASTERS   IN  ART 


J5he  Brochure  Series 

Architectural  Illustrations 

^\/'BJE,CTS  TH\/S  rAP^  T  JJ -B  L IJT  H  B  T>   THIS:  V^^^ 


JANUARY.  XShirty.four  Illujtraiions 

Some  Minor  French  Chateaux.  French  Renaissance  Fireplaces. 

Development  of  the  Greek  Doric  Style.  Pompeiian  Bronzes. 

FEBRUARV.  Uhir1y-_four  Jltusiralionj 

German  Half-Timber  Houses.  Florentine  Armorial  Shields. 

English  Rural  Churches.  Roman  Decorative  Reliefs. 

MAR_CH.  XBhiriy-four  Iltusiralions 

The  Paris  Opera  House.  Gothic  Carved  Woodwork. 

Moorish  Architecture  in  North  Africa. 

APR.il.  Utuenfysije  lUuslralions. 

Swiss  Chalets.           The  Temples  of  Baalbec.  Notre  Dame  Cathedral,  Paris 

MAY  Forly-lhree  Ulujlrations . 

Hieronymite  Convent,  Belem.  Interiors  of  Derbyshire  Churches. 

Marie  Antoinette  Rooms.  Glimpses  in  Italian  Gardens 

JUNE  Xohiriy  lUujIralions . 

Spanish  Churches  in  Mexico  Fifteenth  Century  Marble  Rosettes. 
English  Cottages  and  Farmhouses. 

JULY  Whiriy-jet)en  Iltusiralions. 

A  Rural  English  Bridge.  French  Wrought  Iron  Gate  Grilles. 

Rothenburg  on  the  Tauber.  The  Italian  Countryside. 

AUGUST.  U'tefenly-nine  Itluslralions . 

Church  of  St.  Mark,  Venice.  The  Chateau  of  Pierrefonds. 
Capitals  from  Palazzo  Gondi,  Florence. 


The  entire  volume  for  igoi  will  contain  about  400  illustrations,  carefully  selected,  classified,  and 
accompanied  by  explanatory  and  descriptive  text.   Subscriptions  may  be  dated  back  to  January. 

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MASTERS    IN  ART 


Ot£f tiers  of  'Bxiil dings 
A'Void  Ltabilitjr 

from  damages  caused  by  ice  or  snow 
falling  from  roofs  by  applying 

T!l£  Folsom  New  Model 
Snow  Guard 

TRADE  MARK      A  This  is  the  simplest 

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which  holds  snow  where 
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which  so  frequently  causes  water  to  back  up 
under  the  shingles  or  slates  and  damage  walls 
and  ceihngs.  Folsom  Snow  Guards  are  made 
for  shingle,  slate,  tile,  or  metal  roofs,  both  old 
and  new,  and  are  applied  at  trifling  expense. 
Specified  as  the  standard  snow  guard  by 
architects  everywhere.  Write for  information. 

FOLSOM  SNOW  GUARD  CO. 

105  Beach  Street,  Boston,  Mziss. 


PYROGRAPHY 


OR 


BURNT  WOOD 
ETCHING 

The  art  of  decorating  wood,  leather, 
or  cardboard  by  burning  the  design 
into  the  article  to  be  decorated 


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description,  and  price-list  of  tools  and 
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GOODS  OF  EVERY  DESCRIPTION 

144-146  Wabash  Ave.,      Chicago,  111. 


Visitors  to  New  York 

Are  cordially  invited  to  the 

exbibition  Of  Paintings 


By  Bouguereau,   Rosa  Bonheur,   Cazin,  Corot, 
Daubigny,  Dupre,  Diaz,  Fromentin,  Henner, 
Jacque,  Meissonier,  Roybet,  Rousseau, 
Thaulow,  Troyon,  Ziem, 
and  a 

COLLECTION 

of  Portraits  by  the  Old  Masters  of  the 
Early  French,  English,  and  Dutch  Schools 

m  Galleries 

of 

EDWARD  BRANDUS 

391  Fifth  Avenue      Rue  de  la  Paix 

Between  36th  and  jyth  Streets  J  ^ 


New  York 


Paris 


The  Great  Picture  Light. 


Nos.  7034,  7035. 
Pat.  Dec.  14,  '97. 


FRINK'S  PORTABLE 
PICTURE  REFLECTORS 


For  electric  light,  meet  all  requirements  for 
lighting  pictures.  Every  owner  of  fine 
paintings  could  use  one  or  more  of  these 
portable  reflectors  to  advantage.  The  fact 
that  so  many  have  ordered  these  outfits  for 
their  friends  is  proof  that  their  merits  are 
appreciated.  Height,  closed,  51  inches ;  ex- 
tended, 81  inches.  The  light  from  the  re- 
flector can  be  directed  at  any  picture  in  the 
room  and  at  any  angle. 


Frink's  Portable  Picture  Reflector 
with  Telescope  Standard. 

No.  7034,  brass,  polished  or  antique,  with 
plug  and  socket  for  electric  lamp,  $27.50. 

No.  7035,  black  iron,  with  plug  and  socket 
for  electric  lamp  $16.50 

These  special  Reflectors  are  used  by  all 
the  picture-dealers  in  New  York,  and  by  pri- 
vate collectors  not  only  in  this  country,  but 
in  Paris,  London,  Berlin,  and  other  cities. 
When  ordering,  kindly  mention  the  system 
of  electricity  used.  Satisfaction  guaranteed. 
Parties  ordering  these  Reflectors  need  not 
hesitate  to  return  them  at  our  expense  if 
not  found  satisfactory. 


P.  FRINK.  551  Pcarl  Street.  New  York  City. 

GEO.  FRINK  SPENCER,  Manager. 
Telephone,  860  Franklin. 


VOLUME  1.  OF  "  MASTERS  IN  ART,"  COMPRISING  THE  IS: 

BEH,  1900,  INCLUSIVE  ,(P«rt«  I  to  n),  CONTAINS  MONOOR.MMi;  Ui 

PA  RT    1  ^ 

V AN  DYCK 


PART  2 

TITIAN 


PART  3 

V  E  L  A  S  QUS:  Z 


PART* 

HOLBEIN, 


PART  6 

B  O  T  T  I  C  F.  L  L  I 


M  II 


P  A  R  T 

G I  o  y  B 


p  A  r 

M  U  R,  ? 


R.  E  M  B  R  A  N  D  T 


Ar^j-  pa-i*  separately,  i 


VOLUME  L.CCrNTAIN-^:':.  T^r  T'.vr:  v.-  .''Vi 
COVER-DESIGN  AND  G-'^-i  -V )  1    ^  ;     ,  r- : 
SIGN  AND  niT.T  rcP,T:i.y.  vc  vi       I.  ,    :  v  f^.  .        •        ,  :  ■ 
IN  CLOIH  WilK  ocll;  3ta»v;.^  AN\i  .•■{.;  I  : :   .1;  . 
GILT  TOP,,  .$»,<?P 


■y  O  I.  V  M  /•  ■   T  w 


THE  FOLLOWING  ARTISTS  HA  VE  B }  ^.  f 
PART  SEPARATELY,  15  CENTS;  SUBf  C;  ^ 


P  A  RT  13 

R  U  BENS 


P  A 

D  A 


PART  15 

D  u  R  f:  R 

—  R  T  17 

I  C  H  E  L  A  N  G  I 


'  p  A  'i^ 
U  C  H  K  ^ . 


BATES  &  GtriLt)  COMPANY,  PCI 


iMiLiiiXj'  inrri  •  'iimrTi'Triiin'iirr— n'"-n--ii  r — "-- 


9/ 

F  ennsyl vania  (Si  Vi 


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42  Chavjncy  StrJ| 


